The Matchmaker (1958)

Comic Valentine; 'Matchmaker' Arrives at Little Carnegie

HAVING secured a particularly warm spot in the Hearts and memories of Broadway's playgoers, "The Matchmaker" arrived at the Dittle Carnegie last night equipped to capture the affections of moviegoers.

Thornton Wilder's comic valentine to the amorous antics of a bygone and easier era is still a lively combination of farce and the flamboyant make-believe of the turn-of-the-century theatre. Its dated manners are purposefully exaggerated and its occasionally uneven comedy is not designed to impress the teen-agers but it is a parody that has not been withered by age. "The Matchmaker" welds authentic charm and nostalgia into a winning frolic.

The late Don Hartman, once a man of the theatre himself, obviously took a respectful producer's precautions to maintain as much of the original as possible. John Michael Hayes, his scenarist, and director Joseph Anthony, who also lists the theatre as his base of operations, appear to have carried out instructions faithfully. The result is a blood relative of the delightful "The Matchmaker" that was on view on Broadway for more than a year.

Mr. Wilder's gay charade deals, as it did then, with the ostensible effort of Mrs. Dolly Levi (née Gallagher) to find a wife for a rich, Yonkers merchant, a penny-pinching curmudgeon whom she really plans to snag for herself. There are other complications, of course. Seems the money-hungry merchant's underpaid, callow clerks dream of romance and adventure, too. And they naturally become involved with the milliner meant for the stuffy store owner.

Do things turn out beautifully? The answer is in a happily complicated affirmative. Mrs. Levi captures her befogged quarry, the milliner finds surcease in one of the clerks and things become rosier for all concerned, but not before there is a great deal of hiding in closets and under tables, mistaken identities and a variety of frantic Slapstick in one of New York's flossier restaurants.

The director, in cleaving to the approach to the play, has kept his cast moving through these hectic goings-on. Although this does not garner too many guffaws, the giggles are constant. The costumes and décor of 1884 underline the tongue-in-cheek attitude created by the dialogue, which spoofs and moralizes in proper old-fashioned style. And, retained also, are the constant "asides" delivered by the cast directly to the viewer, which make Mr. Wilder's lines all the more cute and irreverent.

As the designing dame of the title, Shirley Booth is a sly but sweet schemer bustling about her business with a veneer of naiveté that is a delight to watch. Her comparatively restrained performance gives the impression that she enjoys sharing with the customers the fine time she is having. List Paul Ford's portrayal of the pompous object of her affections as the film's outstanding job. He is a miserly merchant with the pseudo-oratorical delivery of W. C. Fields. As a skinflint who is skinned, he is a loud, dour caricature perfectly fitted to this funny frame.

Anthony Perkins' loose-limbed, youthful delineation of the country bumpkin who finds adventure and romance in New York strongly indicates that he is equally at home in farce as he is in serious drama. Robert Morse does a fine stint in re-creating his stage role as his wide-eyed, fellow adventurer, and Shirley MacLaine is properly sweet, demure and confused as the lovelorn milliner.

They, as well as an able supporting cast, are professionally serious about their silly situations. It makes "The Matchmaker," which is never serious, a pleasurable experience.